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Wednesday March 15 | 2023
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FROM THE FRONT LINE TO THE PICKET LINE: ‘It’s business as usual’ says NHS Trust as junior doctors walk out for three days this week in pursuit of a 35 per cent pay increase and improved conditions By Lilly Croucher
TUNBRIDGE WELLS 01892 526344 SEVENOAKS 01732 460565 PADDOCK WOOD 01892 833456
JUNIOR doctors at Tunbridge Wells hospital will be walking out again today, March 15, in their third day of strikes over pay and working conditions. The action is part of a 72-hour national strike by the British Medical Association (BMA) who are demanding a 35 per cent pay rise, which they hope will achieve full pay restoration to 2008/09 levels. Junior doctors have been on the picket lines outside Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone Hospitals since Monday, March 13, to campaign for better working conditions and salaries as they feel ‘underpaid and undervalued’.
Dr Ishani Rao, a final-year junior doctor at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (MTW), told the Times: “I am striking to show solidarity with my
‘The pay is not fair for the job we do but it’s not just about the money; we want better support, time off and equipment’ colleagues who are not paid enough, supported by the government, or respected by the patients. “I love working in emergency medicine
and MTW is the best A&E, but we are starting to feel the pressure from being short-staffed, inadequate equipment or it being in the wrong place, and working extra shifts and overtime. “The pay is not fair for the job we do but it’s not just about the money; we want better support, time off and equipment. “Doing medical on call, I was working 13-hour shifts, four nights in a row. I felt exhausted because we were constantly short-staffed, sometimes we would only have two doctors. We would often admit defeat before we went in that night.”
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LATEST: BBC journalists in Tunbridge Wells set to strike today – Page 3
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